Woman arrested for performing weddings

Brenda Gorst, who ran the Wedding Loft in Jonesborough, has been charged with impersonating a licensed professional in performing more than 600 weddings during the 1990s.

She had been on the run, authorities said, since being indicted in 1999 until her arrest last week.

Authorities discovered in 1999 that she was not an ordained minister as she had claimed.

The case prompted the Legislature to pass an act validating marriages that took place in the state in 1998 and 1999. The law was designed to ease the minds of about 70 couples who had been married by Gorst.

District Attorney General Joe Crumley said Gorst spent a lot of time out of the country since being indicted.

“We’ve had her sighted several times over the last couple of years, usually out of the country,” he said. “I think she was seen in Canada and then somewhere in the central part of the United States, but she would get back over the border before anybody was able to apprehend her.”

Gorst, scheduled to be arraigned June 29, is being held in the Washington County Detention Center until she posts a $5,000 bond.

Crumley said he hopes to get Gorst to repay any couples who lost money from her actions, and possibly force Gorst to pay what it cost the Legislature to pass the special act.

Gorst sold the Wedding Loft in February 1999. The new owner, Patti Lewis, said she used two ordained ministers for weddings there.

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Information from: Johnson City Press, http://www.johnsoncitypress.com